I buy a lot of old video games pretty regularly. Sometimes they’re old favorites that I just didn’t have in my collection, sometimes they’re games I always wanted to play but never had the opportunity, and sometimes they’re just something weird I found. With how often I do this, I thought discussing the games I pick up might make for a fun new recurring feature on this blog. So, here it is, the first installment of Retro Hunting. I picked up five games this week, all on different consoles.

First up this week, we have Little Nemo: The Dream Master for the NES. This is a 1990 platformer by Capcom based on the 1989 animated film, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. I’m not actually familiar with the movie or the comic strip that movie is based on, but this is from Capcom’s golden era of licensed platformers. Just like Duck Tales, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and many others, Little Nemo is a game easily enjoyed even if you don’t know anything about the source material.

In the game, you control Nemo as he explores Slumberland and tries to rescue the king from some sort of evil entity. By default, Nemo moves pretty slow and can’t jump very high, but he does have candy that can stun enemies. But more importantly, you’ll occasionally find animals that you can feed the candy to. After giving them three pieces, you can gain their powers. In the first level, I found a frog like creature that helped me jump higher, a mole that let me dig through ground, and what I think was a ferret or something that let me climb up walls. Throughout each level you have to collect keys to open an exit door. This means you’ll have to explore all over the level instead of just going straight to the end. What I played was fun, and I’d like to get back to it.

Next up, we have another Capcom game, Saturday Night Slam Masters for the SNES. This is a 1993 pro wrestling game, that presumably takes place in the same universe as Street Fighter and Final Fight. In fact, Final Fight’s Mike Haggar is a playable character. The look of the game is reminiscent of Street Fighter, but instead of being locked to a 2D plane, you can freely move around the ring and even get outside of it.

In my short time messing around with it, I was very impressed with how well the game captured the vibe of wrestling. From the flashy entrances as the two opponents walk to the ring to the way the characters bounce off the ropes uncontrollably, the developers clearly get it. It also has a pretty simple control scheme, using only three buttons, for attacking, grabbing, and jumping. Like Capcom’s more well known fighter, anyone can easily pick it up, but there’s a lot of depth to learn. This is another one that I’m very happy to add to the collection.

Maybe my biggest surprise of this bunch was BattleTanx. This is a 1998 Nintendo 64 release by 3DO. It’s also very simple. You move your tank around a map and shoot other tanks to complete mission objectives, reminding me of the Dreamcast game Alien Front Online. Does that mean anything to you, or is that a reference only I understand? Anyway, at the beginning, you’re tasked with simply eliminating enemy tanks, but further missions add new objectives. Eventually, you end up with teammates and take part in a fight that’s similar to a capture the flag mode from a multiplayer shooter. I was only really planning on playing a small chunk of each game, but I kind of just kept playing BattleTanx. It’s a lot of dumb fun.

It also has a story, which surprised me. In this game, a global pandemic of a virus that only affects females has wiped out like 99% of all women. The government has a special quarantine zone that saved some, including the main character’s wife. But this all led to the end of civilization as we know it. Now the streets are filled with gangs of tank drivers, I guess. Also, the gangs are run by the few remaining women, who are referred to as Queenlords. Also, that capture the flag mode I mentioned? The Queenlords are the flags. Weird. But I had fun and am happy I picked this one up.

The fourth game is Armed and Dangerous for the original Xbox. This one’s by LucasArts and came out in 2003. I played a demo for this one back when it was new, but never picked up the full game. The only thing I really remembered about it was that it was an intentionally funny third person shooter with some really goofy weapons. I’m pretty sure a gun that shot land sharks to eat your enemies was in all the marketing for it. I haven’t gotten to use that weapon yet, but I did use a big crank that turned the entire world upside down, sending enemies falling into the sky. Then it flipped right-side up and everyone came crashing down.

At its core, Armed and Dangerous is a pretty standard shooter. It reminded me a bit of Serious Sam, with just how many enemies it was throwing at me at one time. Unfortunately, the game is also pretty ugly, even by the standards of games of that time. The cutscenes also drag on too long and I didn’t find their attempts at humor to be particularly successful. The goofy weapons in the gameplay did a much better job at just being funny. So, not perfect, but I did enjoy my time with it.

And finally, the last game I picked up is Resident Evil: Dead Aim. Another 2003 game, this time by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. Dead Aim is actually the third game in the Gun Survivor spin-off series of Resident Evil games. These are games that are intended to be played with a light gun. Unfortunately, I don’t have one, and it probably wouldn’t work with my modern TV anyway. So, I had to use a regular PS2 controller. It’s a pretty wonky control scheme. You move around with the left stick, but when you want to attack, you hit R1 to switch to a first-person view. If I was using a light gun, I would then point it at the screen and shoot, but instead, I had to move a cursor around the screen with the right stick. It’s disorienting and weird, but I’m sure I could get used to it.

While I didn’t have the best time with Dead Aim, I’d still like to keep going. Resident Evil is one of my all time favorite franchises, and this is one of the few entries that I had never played. Right now though, I’m honestly more likely to just play more BattleTanx though.

And those are my most recent pickups! I hope you enjoyed seeing what I thought about them. If you’ve played these games and have any opinions on them, please feel free to share. I’m always buying new old games, so I’m sure the next entry in this series won’t be too far behind.